24-07-2025
Readers Sent Us Hundreds of Local Climate Solutions
This week we've covered big developments in climate policy. Our colleague Lisa Friedman broke the news that the Trump administration was planning to debilitate the government's ability to fight climate change. The next day, the International Court of Justice, weighing in on climate change for the first time, said countries must protect people from the 'urgent and existential threat' of climate change.
Amid all that news, we hit a quiet milestone on the Climate desk, publishing five more stories in 50 States, 50 Fixes, our series about state and local environmental solutions. With this batch, we reached our midway point: 25 states down, 25 to go.
As part of the series, we asked readers to tell us about effective environmental fixes underway around the country.
And, wow, did you deliver.
As of midday on Thursday, we had received more than 2,400 submissions, oftentimes with dozens of ideas from every state. Several of your suggestions made it into the series, including the stories from Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There were thousands more that we couldn't use, but we wanted to share a few reader ideas that really popped.
Native plants were especially popular. We received more than 100 submissions from people who planted pollinator-friendly gardens in backyards, church lots, hillsides, medians and once-abandoned lots, creating habitat that supports beneficial insects, bats, birds and other wildlife.
We heard about the success of the green club at the Valley Ranch Association, a large homeowners' association in Irving, Texas. Such associations often oppose native plantings, but Valley Ranch has earned certification as a National Wildlife Federation Community Wildlife Habitat, with pollinator gardens and parks and a prairie of native wildflower and grass.
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